


(lack of) sleep and sappiness

by fandomsnthings



Series: Kids, Someday, Maybe? [6]
Category: Hatchetfield Universe - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, I hate myself, Kid Fic, but this is cute, can't stop won't stop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28762314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsnthings/pseuds/fandomsnthings
Summary: Paul and Emma's newborn daughter is a great sleeper.Except when she isn't.(And keeps them up all night.)
Relationships: Paul Matthews & Emma Perkins, Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins
Series: Kids, Someday, Maybe? [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981244
Kudos: 13





	(lack of) sleep and sappiness

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back at it with these cuties!!! I can't help myself!!!
> 
> There's not much to say about this one except that I love them. 
> 
> I appreciate everyone that reads these and leaves comments and kudos! They make my day!
> 
> (If anyone reading this reads Light, that should be updated within a few days! Keep your eye out.)

There were some nights when Eloise just never slept. 

She was largely a really good baby, only waking up when she needed to eat or to be changed. However, there were maybe two days a week where she would wake up what seemed like every thirty minutes, screaming for no reason, and nothing was able to comfort her. 

It was one of those nights. 

They had finally gotten her down at 10 PM, and had immediately gone to bed to try to get any sleep they could. She proceeded to wake up every half an hour, screaming her heart out, and by the time it was 4 AM, everyone was at their wit's end.

Paul groaned as the sound drew him out of his not at all deep sleep, and he sat up slowly. Emma had already gotten out of the covers and was trying in vain to comfort the baby who was squirming angrily in the bassinet beside their bed. It took him a few moments to register them, but he quickly heard sniffles coming from his girlfriend. 

She was bent over the bassinet, tears streaming down her face as she pleaded, “Please, baby girl. Please just go to sleep.” 

He took in her tired appearance for a moment, and his heart tightened painfully in his chest. He had to go back to work a week and a half ago after taking time off when Eloise was born, and while it was pretty smooth sailing for the first couple of days, Emma had told him it was getting harder. 

Eloise wasn’t a hard baby, but she loved to be held and talked to, and without him there, Emma was tasked with the duty unendingly, all the while doing laundry and cleaning bottles and a host of other things. He tried his best to help her when he got home, but she was stubborn and claimed that since he was working all day, the least she could do was keep up around the house. 

She looked completely worn out. He felt so guilty. 

She reached a free hand up to rub her eyes as she continued to try and quiet the baby. Her voice cracked as she murmured, “Please, angel. You’re not hungry and your diaper isn’t full! I don’t know what you want!” 

“Hey, Em,” he said, getting up out of the bed and walking over to her side, where the bassinet was. He kneeled down in front of Emma and placed a comforting hand on her knee, “Lay back down, sweetheart. I’ll take care of her, okay? Get some sleep.” 

“B-but you have work in the morning,” she whimpered. 

“And you’re exhausted,” Paul said, “I’ll be fine. Go back to sleep.” 

She nodded with defeat, going to tuck herself back under the covers. Once she was settled, he stood up and bent to press a kiss to her forehead, a hand coming up to wipe away her tears, “I love you, Em. You’re doing an amazing job, okay?” 

He quickly turned around to scoop up the still-crying baby gently, tucking her securely into his elbow, and left the room so Emma could relax. 

He walked into the living room of the apartment, grabbing his glasses off of the dresser as he went, and sat down in the armchair carefully. Looking down at Eloise, he murmured, “Hey tiny girl, you’re okay!” 

Since being in his arms, she had started to calm down, but sad little cries were still leaving her mouth. 

“Ah, darn, I forgot to grab you a paci on the way out of the bedroom,” he said under his breath. He most definitely didn’t say any semblance of swear words around his daughter, even though Emma thought the rule was stupid because it wasn’t like the baby could repeat them yet. 

He looked around him, to the coffee table and the end table next to him, just to see if there were any pacifiers within his grasp. He groaned slightly when there weren’t. He stood and walked briskly over to where the diaper bag had been discarded on the floor next to the door, fishing one of the tiny objects out of the side pocket. 

When he had gotten up from the chair, the baby had started crying full force again, her tiny arms flailing around angrily. He sighed; she wasn’t going to take the pacifier while she was so upset.

The only thing that soothed her when she was this angry was movement. 

He paced around the kitchen, dining room, and living room, bouncing the newborn in his arms to calm her, “Hey Ellie. You need to start being a good girl for your Mama. She’s really tired because you won’t sleep, and it’s making her sad. I don’t like when Mommy is sad, so I’m sure you don’t either.” 

He used his free hand to cup Eloise’s head and keep her tiny body as close to him as he could. His thumb brushed through her thin wisps of honey-brown hair, which seemed to soothe her, as her cries soon faded to slight whimpers. He seized the opportunity and grabbed the pacifier off of the counter where he had set it, immediately popping it into her mouth when she opened it to let out a whine. After a few moments, she started sucking on it contently, her whimpers turning into little sighs. 

“There you go, sweet girl,” Paul murmured, pulling her up closer to his face so he could press a kiss to the top of her head, “There you go. See, there’s nothing to be so worked up about.”

He didn’t know he could love something so small as intensely as he loved his daughter. Throughout Emma’s pregnancy, he had been worried he was going to be so overwhelmed with everything that he wasn’t going to be able to bond with the baby, but the opposite was true. It was love at first sight. 

She was theirs, something he and Emma had made together, something that was precious and perfect and untouched by all of the bad things in the world. Even though she exhausted him and sometimes screamed his ear off and sometimes wouldn’t let them sleep, she was everything he could’ve imagined he and Emma’s child would be and more. 

She was only a month old, and it already felt like she was growing up too fast. She had almost outgrown her newborn clothes, and she had moved up a size in diapers, and she had started to send them tiny smiles throughout the day. He was more than excited to see what kind of person she grew into, if she would be timid and shy like him or if she would be bold and loud and opinionated like her mother or a mixture of both, but he also couldn’t help but preemptively miss being able to hold her in one arm effortlessly and being able to have her sleep on his chest while not even registering her weight. 

“I love you, Eloise,” he whispered, “You and your Mama are my whole world.”

She blinked up at him sleepily, cooing softly. With a smile, he said, “Now, are you going to fall back to sleep? Will you let me put you in your bassinet, or is that just going to make you wake up again?” 

He sighed, “I think that’s probably just going to make you get upset again. I guess we’ll lounge on the couch instead. I might be sore in the morning, but it’s worth it if it means Mama is well-rested, right?”

He trudged over to the couch and sat down with a grunt, rubbing his tired eyes under his glasses. He adjusted the baby so she was curled up on his chest, her eyes already fluttering shut, and he smiled, using the back of his fingers to stroke her soft cheek, “There you go, Eloise. Go to sleep.”

He glanced at the digital clock on the DVD player under their TV, sighing when he saw it was already 5 AM. How had he been pacing around the apartment for an hour? It didn’t seem that long, but he figured time gets lost when you’re doing the same thing over and over again while looking at the cutest baby on the planet. 

He laid his head back against the couch, closing his eyes. It was just for a moment, he told himself, he needed to stay awake and make sure the baby was okay, and maybe he’d call in in a few hours and take the day off to catch up on sleep. Yeah, that’s what he’d do. 

He didn’t mean to fall asleep. 

-

Emma woke up at 7 as a result of the bright summer sun shining through the window. She groaned, sitting up and rubbing her eyes; she felt surprisingly well-rested, despite the night they had with Eloise. 

Her heart dropped. 

Eloise. She should’ve woken up again, shouldn’t she have?

Her eyes shot to the bassinet, her heart rate picking up when she found it empty. She looked to her left, finding Paul’s side of the bed empty as well. 

She relaxed. It was all coming back to her. Paul got up at 4 AM and tended to the baby so she could get some sleep. She sighed, a hand coming up to rest over her pounding heart as she caught her breath. She had to find them, she supposed; the baby would be hungry. 

Maybe Paul had already fed her a bottle, though. 

Emma shrugged to herself; either way, she missed them.

She stood and stretched before setting off. She stopped in the nursery first, having expected to find them hanging out together in the rocking chair. When that room was empty, she continued into the living room, and the sight that met her completely melted her heart. 

Paul was propped up in the corner of the couch, his head thrown back in what she assumed was a rather uncomfortable position. His hair was endearingly messy and his glasses were crooked (damn, he looked so fucking cute in his glasses). Eloise was tucked securely into his elbow, which was propped up on the arm of the couch so that the baby’s head was resting on his shoulder. 

God, she’d never get over him holding their tiny baby in his muscular arms. 

_ If he wasn’t hot before.., _ she thought briefly.

Eloise was squirming around in his arms, angry grunts leaving her mouth. If Emma couldn’t have guessed from Paul’s deep asleep position on the couch, she knew now that the baby definitely hadn’t been fed. 

She stepped forward slowly, hoping to take the baby out of his arms without waking him up. She’d call in for him, and they could have a family day. That sounded nice, after two weeks of absolute hell without him home. 

Once she was within arms distance of the couch, she reached forward and eased the newborn out of his arms while murmuring, “Hey peanut! Did you have a nice little nap with Daddy?” 

As soon as the baby’s weight was in her arms and no longer on Paul’s chest, the man woke up with a start, his eyes full of fear as he frantically tried to locate Eloise. 

“Hey, hey,” Emma said comfortingly, reaching her free hand to rub his shoulder, “It’s okay! It’s just me. She wants to eat.”

“Shit,” he muttered tiredly, sitting up and stretching his neck with a wince, “I knew that sleeping on the couch was going to be a bad idea.” 

When his eyes opened fully, he looked at her and smiled tiredly, “Did you sleep good?” 

“Yeah,” Emma said, coming over to sit down next to him and begin to feed the baby, “You didn’t.” 

“Yeah, yeah, I didn’t,” he yawned, “But if you did, then it was worth it. I gotta call in, though. I’m exhausted.” 

He stood up to go grab his phone from the bedroom, but before he was out of sight, she piped up, “I really appreciate everything you do for us.”

He turned, sending her a small smile and a shrug, “She’s my baby too. I’m just doing what dads should.” 

“But really,” she said genuinely, waving around the nursing baby’s fist that had latched onto her finger, her gaze soft, “I don’t know what I’d do without you. You do everything I need without me having to ask for help because you know I’m shit at doing that. And you’re so great with her. You’re only a month in and you're already the best dad, in my humble opinion.” 

His heart warmed, and he couldn’t help but walk back over to the couch and press a kiss to her lips. When he pulled away, he murmured, “And you’re the best mom. In my humble opinion.”

She laughed softly, “I love you, Paul.” 

“I love you too.”

“Okay, that’s enough sappiness for the morning. Go call in before Mr. Davidson personally drives here to see where his star IT man is,” she joked, leaning back against the couch. 

“He wouldn’t do that,” Paul said, straightening up and starting to head back towards the bedroom. 

“Have you met your boss, Paul? The man is insane.” 

“Yeah, yeah, I guess you’re right. He’d probably slither under the door if we didn’t let him in within sixty seconds,” he said with a chuckle as he disappeared down the hallway.

Emma laughed again, “You’re not wrong.” 

A beat of silence passed before Paul called from the bedroom, “Hey Em?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Is there more time for sappiness in the afternoon? Because I love you guys and I miss you when I'm at work and I like being sappy with you.” 

Emma blushed slightly, looking down at Eloise and murmuring, “Did you hear that, peanut? Your father is the mushiest person I’ve ever met. I love it, though. He's sweet.” She lifted her head again, her smile wide. 

“Maybe we can fit more in after three.”

**Author's Note:**

> Paul just loves his girls so much. And Emma loves her family. And I love them. 🥺


End file.
